Emilio Lopez, the State Official for Children and Adolescents, declared that “many of them will die if they do not receive help immediately”. The depression in coffee bean prices has led to some 30,000 coffee plantation workers leaving the farms in the provinces of Matagalpa and Jinotega and wandering along the highways, looking for help.

The authorities claim that 12 people have died through malnutrition, while local press sources claim the figure is higher. Coffee is the mainstay of the economy of Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the continent after Haiti.